'We try to be authentic.' Notre Dame football matters to NBC producer Lindsay Schanzer

SOUTH BEND — Of all the behind-the-scenes segments NBC’s "B1G College Countdown" has aired in its inaugural season, including a pair of Notre Dame football visits, Lindsay Schanzer’s favorite had nothing to do with X’s and O’s.

For Schanzer, senior producer of the full-day pregame and halftime studio show, the highlight was Julio Rodriguez, team barber for the Irish, giving fans their choice of the “Freeman” or the “Hartman” look before the USC game on Oct. 14.

On-air reporter Ahmed Fareed even sat in the barber chair Rodriguez set up for tailgating fans and came away with a mock makeover of his own.

“There’s a lot of internet love, you may have seen, for Sam Hartman’s hair and beard,” Schanzer said in a recent phone interview. “And Marcus Freeman before him, with the fade. It’s stuff like that, I think, that makes college football fun and doing these shows fun.”

Close shave: Julio Rodriguez is more than unofficial team barber for Notre Dame football

A 2011 Notre Dame graduate, Schanzer also produces NBC’s horse-racing coverage, where she became the first woman to produce the Kentucky Derby. While the first Saturday in May is largely scripted features and interviews dropped in between a series of two-minute races, a fall football Saturday is an entirely different television animal.

Upsets, controversies, epic performances and so many other twists and turns must be monitored and addressed throughout the day.

Host Maria Taylor keeps the show moving, setting up analysts Matt Cassell, Michael Robinson and Joshua Perry as well as reporters Nicole Auerbach and Fareed.

While Saturday morning pregame shows such as ESPN's "College GameDay" and Fox’s "Big Noon Kickoff" have increasingly veered more toward the outrageous, the mission for NBC’s traveling studio show is different.

“We’re in a really unique position just because of the nature of the show,” Schanzer said. “We’re wrapping around our game coverage throughout the day. We’re more of a pregame show than a lot of our quote ‘competitors,’ where they’re at the beginning of the day, they have long windows, they can run the gamut of college football coverage and have longer-winded conversations.”

An NBC football Saturday involves multiple games, culminating in a primetime matchup that featured Notre Dame twice this season: the USC game and the Ohio State nailbiter on Sept. 23. NBC will carry Notre Dame’s Senior Day home finale against Wake Forest on Nov. 18, but "B1G College Countdown" will be on location in Madison, Wisc., for Nebraska-Wisconsin.

“We have much shorter windows, and we’re mostly trying to serve an audience that’s there to watch our game,” Schanzer said. “We really lean into getting them set for the game they’re about to watch and the storylines of that game and that campus. … But there’s a lot going on in college football, so we take the opportunity as well to react to any situations that come up.”

The ongoing saga of alleged sign-stealing at Michigan, for instance, is a story that "B1G College Countdown" continues to follow in a journalistic manner.

“I would say we as a company and certainly as a show are not trying to be a ‘hot take’ broadcast,” Schanzer said. “We don’t go into a week saying, ‘What’s our hot take of the week?’ We try to be authentic. We try to react to what’s going on and be entertaining along the way.”

Schanzer family legacy carries on at NBC, Notre Dame

If Schanzer sounds like a wily veteran of the sports television business, there’s a good explanation for that.

Her father, Ken Schanzer, was president of NBC Sports from 1998 until his retirement in 2011. His three-decade run at the network included the acquisition of “Sunday Night Football” in 2006 and a 1991 agreement that gave NBC exclusive network television rights to Notre Dame’s home football games.

That agreement, which has been renewed five times, runs through 2025.

“That’s really a deal that my dad did back in ’91,” Schanzer said. “It’s been a part of my life and part of my family for my entire life. I’m really passionate about it. It’s a partnership that holds a really special place in my heart for that reason.”

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The connection now includes one of her former bosses at NBC, Pete Bevacqua, set to follow Jack Swarbrick as Notre Dame athletic director in early 2024. Bevacqua, a 1993 Notre Dame graduate, served as president of NBC Sports (2018-2020) before his promotion to chairman (2020-2023).

“I interacted with Pete quite a bit here (at NBC), and I think Notre Dame fans should be excited about him taking over,” Schanzer said. “Pete’s a really great guy and a great leader. I loved working for him and with him, and I know very well how passionate he is about Notre Dame. The guy bleeds blue and gold. It’s his greatest passion.”

A film and television major at Notre Dame, Schanzer has stayed in touch with her favorite professor, Christine Becker.

“I loved the way she taught her classes,” Schanzer said. “She’s always been encouraging. She was to everyone in the class. I never felt like anything was out of reach while I was at school, and I learned a whole lot.”

One of Schanzer’s lasting memories as an undergraduate came after winless Notre Dame (0-5) upset UCLA on the road in 2007, her freshman year. The Irish went on to finish 3-9 — “an absolutely horrendous season,” she recalled — but there was still fun along the way.

“The students were so excited just to get a win that they stormed the reflection pool in front of Touchdown Jesus,” Schanzer said. “I just remember that wild scene. Everybody’s legs were stained blue for a couple days after because the water in there is filled with some kind of chemicals.”

With a blend of melancholy and professional respect, she credits ESPN's "College GameDay" with staging a similar splash in the runup to the Ohio State game. But there are still plenty of other Irish football traditions she hopes to explore next season, including a look at the Irish Guard.

“I went there, so I have a lot of love for the university,” Schanzer said. “Being able to spearhead my own show that’s a part of the coverage has been beyond the realm of what I imagined I’d be doing in this business. I love being able to do that at Notre Dame’s campus. It’s been a real joy, and I hope I get to do it for years to come.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football and is on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame grad Lindsay Schanzer produces NBC college football show